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Wesmerité Navy
The Wesmerité Navy, officially the Marine Nationale ("National Navy") and often called La Marine, is the maritime arm of the''' Parliamentary Republic of 'Wesmerité's Armed Forces. ''Officially abbreviated as MNW ("Marine Nationale Wesmerité"), vessels are given the prefix MWS, short for "La Marine National du Wesmerité's Ship". The MNW is a blue water navy and operates a wide range of vessels inherited from the old Merité Royal Navy ("La Marine Royale"), and like Aethelnia, Wesmerité does not have a separate coast guard organization, and the navy functions as the de facto coast guard along with its military duties. The motto of the navy is "Through preparation, valour and merit: Victory." History Tracing its roots back to before the plauge, the Merité Kingdom's Marine Royale, the ancestor of the Marine Nationale, is one of Vex's oldest naval forces and historically played a key part in the exploration of Vexillium and in establishing the Merité Colonial Empire on the Old Continent, Longerath, Nuarmia and Fiarria continents. The Merité Royal Navy was founded in 77 BP during the Wars of Consolidation by merchant adventurer Samuel de Mérion to protect his merchant shipping and to raid the shiping of his rivals. After Samuel de Mérion married Queen Coria Sophia, he brought the force under Sophic dynastic control and Queen Coria gave the force it's royal title and made Port Angela its main base. After the plauge the Marine Royale re-established communications and trade between Merité and with the rest of of the known Vex and then began a two century long, systematic exploration of Vexillium. The Marine Royale also played a key role in Merité's early wars with Gronk and then in establishing Merité influence in Ulanova and Rosardan. In the second century, the Marine Royale led Merité's exploration and domination of Fiarria. It was arguable at the time that the Marine Royale was one of the finest navies in the world and it was committed to maintaining its leadership position and combat edge against all rivals. Taking advantage of Merité's industrial revolution, the Marine Royale was on the leading edge in many areas of warship development and developed many new technologies in the mid to late 100s: *The Marine Royale led the development of the explosive shell gun. *In 148, Le Timon became the first steam-powered battleship in history. *''Le Roi du Cimera'' became the first seagoing ironclad in history when she was launched in 158. *In 161, the Marine Royale launched Le Petite Poisson, the first submarine in the world to be propelled by machine power. *In 174, the La Marie Sinclaire became the first steel-hulled warship. *In 187, the Le Chima became the world's first armoured cruiser. In the third century, the Merité Kingdom found itself in a new naval arms race with the other great powers of Vex with the advent of the modern, big gun battleship. To defend the vast Meritéan Colonial Empire and to defend the trade routes the Marine Royale pioneered naval aviation and the submarine to defend itself and deter its rivals. During the start of King Timothy I reign, the restoration of royal authority over Parliament gave the young monarch the ability to indulge his love of the navy. His patronage led to a new naval building program in the early 250s through to the 260s and then again in the 280s to the late 290s. The majority of today's Marine Nationale ships (as well as Cimera's fleet) was built during the two great Timothian fleet construction programs. The political collapse of the Merité Kingdom in 298-99 was a traumatic event for the entire nation, the Marine Royale included. With the assassination of King Timothy I and the subsequent disappearance of King Timothy II the Merité Kingdom began to fall into chaos. Fleet Admiral Jacques Colville ordered the majority of fleet assets home in December 298 in an attempt to organize a coup to restore order. However, once the fleet assembled at Port Angela, sailors, who had not been paid for months, mutinied and refused to take orders from the Admiralty. It took the UNV intervention force to restore order at home and in the overseas territories. The Commonwealth, the old Colonial Empire which the Marine Royale worked so hard to build and maintain, was lost during the UNV led reconstruction. However, the legacy of Fleet Admiral Colville's actions was that the bulk of the Marine Royale's fleet assets were inherited by the Merité successor state, the Parliamentary Republic of Wesmerité. After the UNV intervention and the Cruisana supervised government of Eichensehria, the Parliamentary Republic of Wesmerité became independent in June 301 and the Marine Royale was reorganized into the Marine Nationale. The fate of the fleet became a major political issue for the new government with many on the left and centre of the political spectrum demanding the fleet be sold off or scraped, regarding it as an expensive, unneeded relic of empire that the greatly shrunken Meritéan nation could ill afford, while many on the right demanded the fleet be maintained for defence and for possible future military use in reuniting the Meritéan region. In the 304 naval debate the government decided to maintain the full fleet but keeping 25% of its strength on active service while the remaining 75% of fleet assets would be placed in reserve. The reserve ships would maintained and manned by skeleton crews from the professional navy that could be quickly brought to strength and readiness by reservists. This political compromise was felt to preserve the war fighting potential of an asset that the nation could never replace, yet at the same time be affordable. Structure Fleet Organization The chief of the naval staff is Fleet Admiral Michael Rolland and as of 313 the Navy has an active and reserve strength of 77,000 military personnel and 17,000 civilian staff. The Navy is organised into seven main branches: *The Force d'Active Navale (the Active Naval Fleet) - The surface fleet. *The Force d'Reserve Navale (Naval Reserve Fleet) - The surface fleet held in reserve. *The Marine d'Reserves Volunteers - The volunteer naval reserve force. *The Force Sousmarines (Submarine forces) - The fleets of commerce raiding and coastal patrol submarines. *The Aviation Navale (Naval Air Force) - Ground and sea-based aircraft. *The Fusiliers Marins (Naval Marines) - Naval infantry including Commandos. *The Gendarmerie Maritime - The naval deteachment that conducts coast guard duties. Main naval bases As of 313, the major naval bases in use are Port Angela, Scona Bréa and the anchorage of Sheen Island near Avonli. Under the Merité Union, Marine Nationale assets can operate out of Cimeran harbours with permission of the Cimeran government. Rank Structure of the Marine Nationale Aircraft Carriers The Wesmerité Navy's current aircraft carrier strenght is 4 Fleet Carriers, 2 Catamaran Fleet Carriers and 6 Light Fleet Carriers. Currently only the Fleet Carriers MWS Scona Brea & MWS Portmerion and the Light Fleet Carriers Martha Finlay and Margaret Thrasher are on active service with the remainder of the carriers held in the reserve fleet. *City Class Fleet Carriers **MWS Port Angela **MWS Scona Bréa **MWS Portmerion **MWS Ashencouer *Catamaran Class Fleet Carriers **MWS Le Rex Timothy I **MWS Le Prince Timothy *256 Design Light Fleet Carriers **MWS Martha Finlay **MWS Louisa Petty **MWS Margaret Thrasher **MWS Kathleen Easton **MWS Tatiannia Spencer **MWS Niobe Klein Category:Military Category:Wesmerité Battleships The Wesmerité Navy's current battleship strength is 2 Queen class battleships and 2 King class battleships. Currently, MWS La Reine Coria is on active service (and is flag ship of the Marine Nationale), with the rest of the battleship fleet held in reserve. *Queen Class Battleships **MWS La Reine Coria **MWS La Reine Sarah *King Class Battleships **Le Roi Timon L'Grand **Le Roi Timon-Adolphe Despite their great expense and argued obsolescence by advocates of naval air power, the Marine National believes it is important to maitain the fire support and command and control capabilities of these ship. As long as other nations maintain battleships, the Marine National is committed to having them a part of the fleet. Category:Military Category:Wesmerité Heavy Cruisers The last heavy cruiser was retired by the old Marine Royale in 285. Currently, their fire support role is carried out by the last remaining battleships in the fleet, by naval air power and by missiles from destroyers and frigates. Light Cruisers The last light cruiser was retired in 286 as naval technology evolved and other vessels were adopted to carry out, more affordably, the role played by light cruisers in the fleet. The last light cruiser, the MWS Milhouse, is moored in Port Angela harbour as a museum ship. Destroyers The Dynasty class destroyer is a helicopter and guided missile carrying destoyer. Its role can be either anti-air and/or anti-submarine and is designed to either support carrier taskforces' in air and undersea defence or to act as command and control ship among small taskforces made-up of destroyer escourts, frigates and corvettes. There are 16 Dynasty class destoyers in the fleet, named after Merité noble houses. Category:Military Category:Wesmerité Destroyer Escourts There are 36 Clan Class destroyer escourts in the fleet. Built during the 260s, they were designed for long range convoy defence and anti-submarine warfare. Category:Military Category:Wesmerité Frigates There are 24 Flower class frigates in the fleet. Built in the 290s as a modern replacement to the older destoyer escourts and destroyers. The frigates fill manily an anti-submarine role, but can be converted and used to fill any multi-purpose role. Category:Military Category:Wesmerité Corvette The County Class Corvettes were designed and built in the early 290s as a multi-role vessel with main duties designed to be coastal surveillance, sovereignty patrol, minesweeping, mine-hunting and search and rescue. There are 24 County Class vessels. One-third of the class are assinged to d'Active Navale, one-third of the class to the Gendarmerie Maritime and one-third is curently in d'Reserve Navale. Category:Military Category:Wesmerité Submarines The Type 2500 is the modern diesel-electric powered Fleet submarine used by the Marine Nartionale. 42 were built in the 290s to replace the older Type 2300, Type 2100 and Type 1900 submarines used by the fleet. The old Marine Royale naval doctrine emphasised commerce raiding, sea denial and deterrence. Currently 12 are on active service with the rest in reserve. Category:Military Category:Wesmerité Notable Wesmerité naval officers Corsairs 'Heroes of the Marine Royale ' 'Explorers' 'Other important naval officers' 'Notable people who served in the Navy' Gallary Reine Coria in port.jpg 800px-Reine Coria-2.jpg 800px-Le Vauban (cuirassé).jpg 300px-17 MWS Scona Brae.jpg Nibai.jpg Bonaventure4.jpg BB MWSTimon.jpg|The Battleship Le Rio Timon L'Grand MWS Basper.jpg 300px-MWS Scallop SSK-89.jpg 220px-MWS Lister (DDG 283).jpg MWS Rose.jpg 300px-MWS Willowcreek (DDE 261).jpeg ** ** ** ** ** Category:Military Category:Wesmerité